Out of Africa

In 1985 Sydney Pollack scored his biggest triumph, artistically speaking, with Out of Africa. The film won the Oscar for Best Picture, and he won for Best Director. I remember seeing it for the first time in a Times Square theater and being completely unimpressed, and twenty-three years later my opinion hasn't changed much.

The film tells the story of Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep), a Danish woman who, spurned by the man she loves, marries his twin brother, who was a friend. They set up a coffee plantation in East Africa (it was supposed to be cattle, but the husband, played by Klaus Maria Brandauer, switches to coffee, the first of a series of scurrilous things he does). When Brandauer goes off hunting and whoring, Streep takes up with a big-game hunter, Robert Redford.

There is a lot to like here, particularly the breathtaking photography by David Watkin and the tender romantic music of John Barry. But, as Vincent Canby wrote in the New York Times, the film comes off as a National Geographic special. The heart of the problem is a certain bloodlessness to the proceedings. Redford, as with other films directed by Pollack, just doesn't have chemistry with Streep. The second half of the film is essentially a long dialogue about whether they should get married or not, and frankly I didn't care. More interesting is her relationship with her servants.

So what have I learned after watching ten Pollack films in two weeks? Well, he was certainly not an auteur. I don't think you could identify a certain style with him. He made films in all genres, and he worked exclusively with big stars--you can't find a film on his resume that doesn't contain above-the-title talent, beginning with The Slender Thread, which starred Sidney Poitier, and ending with The Interpreter, with Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman. In some ways he reminds me of Michael Curtiz, a man who made all sorts of great films in the thirties and forties (like The Adventures of Robin Hood and Casablanca) but is little remembered today. Both men allowed themselves to play second fiddle to the work itself, and were more craftsmen than artists.

Pollack made five more feature films after Out of Africa, none of which were big successes (they were Havana, The Firm, Sabrina, Random Hearts, and The Interpreter). Of those I've seen is The Firm, which I remember disliking, except for a performance by Gene Hackman, and The Interpreter, which was a snooze. Nevertheless, he certainly was a force in Hollywood, particularly as a producer. His last Oscar nomination came for Best Picture for Michael Clayton. Clearly the man was not in retirement mode, which makes his passing all the more untimely.